How to prepare your home for an end-of-tenancy clean

The week before you hand the keys back is always the worst. The flat looks bigger empty, every mark on the wall has suddenly appeared from nowhere, and there's a deposit hanging in the balance. Most of our end-of-tenancy clients call us in a quiet panic between Monday and Wednesday for a Friday hand-back. We can usually help. But there are a few things that, if you do them before we arrive, will make the clean go faster, cleaner, and cheaper.

The first one is the most overlooked: empty everything. We mean everything. Not just the wardrobes, but the back of the airing cupboard, the kitchen drawers, the bathroom cabinet, and the under-stair cupboard you'd forgotten existed. Inventory clerks open every door. So do we. A drawer with a single takeaway menu in it is a drawer that hasn't been cleaned.

Take the photos off the walls and remove the picture hooks. If you've used Command strips, peel them slowly and at an angle — pulling them straight off lifts the paint. If you've used regular hooks, fill the holes with a tiny amount of Polyfilla and let it dry. Most letting agents won't charge for filled holes; they will charge for unfilled ones.

Inventory clerks open every door. So do we.

Don't try to deep-clean the oven yourself the day before. We've watched dozens of clients do this and end up exhausted, with an oven that's only half-done and now smells of caustic. Leave it for us. Same goes for limescale in the bathroom — domestic limescale removers are weak by design, because manufacturers don't want you burning your hands. Ours aren't.

Defrost the freezer 24 hours before we arrive. There's nothing we can do with a frozen-shut freezer except wait, and waiting is on your clock.

If there's a garden or balcony, sweep it. We don't include outdoor space in standard end-of-tenancy pricing, but inventory clerks do check it.

Last thing: leave the keys with a neighbour or in a key safe if you can. Some of the best cleans we've done have been on properties the client had already moved out of — we worked through a quiet flat with our own music on and got the place gleaming without anyone tripping over a vacuum. If you can be elsewhere, be elsewhere.